Huntington Beach City Elementary School District Upgrades with Shure Microflex® AdvanceTM Ceiling Array Microphones

Comprised of 12 esteemed schools, the Huntington Beach City Elementary School District (HBCSD) is a southern Calif. educational community with a long history of excellence in education. One of HBCSD’s schools—S.A. Moffett Elementary School—recently expressed the desire to upgrade the sound system in one of its auxiliary meeting rooms typically used for district meetings and other educational gatherings. Knowing the location of the installation would be temporary because a new district office was being constructed, it was vital all components be installed in a manner that would allow for the system to be easily deconstructed, moved and reinstalled at the new location.

In terms of audio performance, the district wanted the room to have the look and feel

of a “city council meeting room”—professional, aesthetically-pleasing equipment. They did not want the mics to be visible and needed a system that complimented the Q&A format and style that the district meetings usually take on.

With all this in mind, CEO, installer and designer Ross Ricks of Surf City Sound turned to Shure. Selected for its aesthetic appeal, superior audio quality and flexible integration, Ricks and his team chose to install the Shure Microflex® AdvanceTM Ceiling Array Microphones with SLX24/BETA58 handheld wireless microphones. The meeting space they were working with included a U-shape configuration that faced an audience, ideal for Q&A sessions and open dialogue. With individuals in both the front and rear portions of the room, MXA910 was able to capture sound sources from above for the board members with pristine accuracy. Boasting the ability to capture best-in-class audio from above the meeting space, Shure’sproprietary Steerable Coverage technology enabled Ricks and his team to create and configure the specific lobes (up to eight) for whatever seating position was in place. The audience took advantage of the clarity and reliability of SLX series microphone with Beta58 capsule.

Another feature that stood out for this particular installation was the touchscreen controller that allowed meeting facilitators to silence, or mute, specific areas of the audience. The “privacy” button enabled moderators to silence the MXA910 hosted above the meeting space where the main panelist/meeting attendees were seated.

In terms of set up and installation, Ross noted the software configurations made the implementation of the design very straight forward. The simplicity of the touchscreen design and appearance allowed for ease-of-use and outstanding overall performance.